Sounds, smells, sights of New York

Walking the streets is truly an assault on the senses. Steamy smells from vents and street-level are powerful, sounds of sirens of fire engines helplessly trying to move through grid-lock, occasional honking (illegal) and the shrill whistle of white-gloved traffic cops were made insignificant by the crashing and scraping bull dozer destroying old concrete to dig its way through to the scary web of rusted pipes found below the surface.

Tickets, Patience and Fortitude

Made it to Times Square and gawked at the sky-high signs along with a million other tourists. We stood in line for cheap broadway seats only to find out they were only for the matinee. We had to come back in a few hours for evening seats (that evening only) Decided to just go to the ticket office and buy regular-priced but "lower-priced" tickets. After much debate we bought nose-bleed seats for Mary Poppins and Spiderman. Poppins was in the New Amsterdam theater which is old and unique and Spiderman, in spite of a rocky start, looked interesting.

We then set out for the New York Public Library, a beautiful Beaux-Arts building on Fifth Avenue and 42^nd Street. Lions, Patience and Fortitude, sit out front. They were renamed during the depression. We needed the same attitude as we worked our way through the crowded city. We wandered through the marble-lined halls including the dark, serious Map Room, and the huge Reading Room now filled with people scanning computers – no longer a book in sight…. 

Macy's

We walked through Macy’s, the largest department store in the world. Once you get past the original wooden elevators (1902), you are left with the same merchandise as in all Macy’s – just more! 

Chelsea and the Garment District

We wandered our way up towards Times Square on 42^nd Street. In spite of the overcast day, it wasn’t long before we were able to look up and see the icon we all hope to see – The Empire State Building. Because the bulk of the tallest buildings are concentrated in the financial district of Manhattan, the Empire State Building and the beautiful Chrysler Building still both really stand out.

Emerging from the underground

Arriving in Penn Station is like finding yourself inside an ant hill. People swarming in all directions, all clearly knowing where they are going – crossing paths, moving quickly up stairs, disappearing down into tunnels, not slowing even when the escalators aren’t running and more coming all the time.

We emerged from the train into the daylight and were welcomed with our first shock of a Manhattan street. Thirty-fourth Street is mid-way up Manhattan and the traffic, noise, smells and people tell you, you’ve arrived. 

Day one - missed the train....

We were lucky enough to stay with our niece and her family who lived across the river in New Jersey. We didn't realize until we arrived that for us to get into Manhattan every day, Leigh would have to drive us to and from the train. She is the reason we had the adventures we did.

We set out every morning at 8:30 and arrived at the train station at 9:00. The first morning the train was already there and as we struggled to figure out the machines, we heard the doors shut and the train pull away! In our rush, Ron ended up with two child's tickets and Bill and I couldn't make it past the mistake of entering $1.41 instead of $14.00! We were panicking because it looked like we had an hour to wait for the next train. We made enough commotion that others on the platform came to our rescue and calmly explained that there was another train in 8 minutes and we could change at Newark, Broad street and still get to our goal of Penn station. Not the only example of friendly New Yorkers coming to our rescue. We learned to carry out tourist flag high and people frequently came forward offering help and shortcuts.

Looking back

We have come home from an exhaustive and exhausting week-long trip to New York and can proudly say we checked off everything on our list! Miles of Manhattan streets walked, interesting restaurants visited, museums scoured, plays and musicals attended, subways, buses and trains used, and now we sit back to think about the fabulous adventure we had.
Ron was our intrepid subway expert and we always looked to him when swinging on a subway pole and coming up to a stop. Is this it?? He and I covered highlights of four fabulous art museums and searched for neighbourhoods and special sights we had researched or knew about while Bill followed along, providing support and encouragement.
We had a lot of laughs, experienced a lot of sights, sounds and smells(!) and feel like we were immersed in a wonderful adventure.
I'm going to write a few blogs entries to capture some of the highlights and show some pictures.